


To Find Meaning in the Little Dipper

by fundip



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Denial, Gore, High School, M/M, Mystery Twins, Possession, Scary Monsters, Slow Romance, older!Pines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:23:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3791377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fundip/pseuds/fundip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Bill turned himself into a high school student, he didn't expect much to happen. Then he met Dipper Pines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Even Demons Take Finals

It is always annoyingly sunny in Gravity Falls.

Bill Cipher leans back in his chair and gazes out the window. Leaves fall gracefully off a nearby tree, shining in the morning sky. Luckily enough, he not only has a window seat, but also sits in the very back of the classroom. This is not a mere coincidence.

While the pencil writes away the correct answers on its own, the boy stares absentmindedly at the leaves. He is entranced with their dance to the floor, but catches them aflame before they dare touch the ground. Miniature piles of ash lay in the grass. Coincidence is not what caused everyone else who has witnessed these strange piles to be blissfully ignorant of this strange phenomenon. 

No, nothing in Bill's life really resulted from coincidence. In his countless years of existence, not once has he met a circumstance that brought something along that was unpredictable or incalculable. Being an all sentient, all knowing demon, he knows that such things never happened. The whole of the universe is not simple enough to let something like a coincidence happen.

The pencil falls and rolls to the edge of the desk and makes for the floor. It reminds him of the leaves. For a moment his mind fills with ideas of what would happen if he caused it to combust. The thought dropped and he grabbed the pencil before it landed on the ground.

"Bill," He looks up to see the teacher watching him. "Are you done with your exam?"

"Yes," He chimes loudly, getting several angered looks by nearby students. 

There's a mix of anger in the air for how weirdly early he finished the end of year exam and why he had to be so unnecessarily loud about it. He doesn't care to the slightest. If he was going to be enrolled in high school, he was going to make his "fellow teens" suffer with him. The teacher doesn't look angry nor surprised that he was able to finish the two hundred and fifty question test in the less than half an hour.

"Well, bring it up then."

Bill snatches the test and whistles as he marches to the front of the class, even avoiding a foot that was intended to trip him. 

She takes the paper from his hand and smiles something forced. "You can leave if you wish." There's a pause. "I know that all you brought with you was a pencil."

"Oh no," He waves her off and spin around, walking towards his desk. "I've got no where better to be."

Settling back down and feeling the several sets of eyes watching him with a certain intensity, he closes his own and rests his head in his arms.

It isn't true. He has a lot of places to be. Deals to make. Beings to see. People to suffer. But, he made a deal with himself, of all people, to finally live the high school experience. 

In a world where everything is extremely predictable, he wants something more. He hungers for it. The feeling is similar to an itch that he simply can't seem to scratch. He's nearly immortal, he wants to be excited about being able to do literally anything. But everything is so simple. So dull. So boring.

When he heard two residents talking on how teens were the most unpredictable, rogue age group, Bill jumped at the opportunity to surround himself with the population. Because what did he have to lose?

He made a alias, but continued to go by his already fake name and gave himself a complete make over. Due to the inability to make a new form, he resulted to possessing a newly dubbed deceased teen from the local hospital. It would have been too much of a hassle to try and find someone who was accepting of long time possession, so he figured that a dead body with no relatives or loved ones watching over his hospital bed would be the safest bet. Going from his demonic form to this new human one was a bit of a challenge in the beginning.

When he first entered this body, he realized that operating it would not be as easy as he had previously imagined. His eyes opened to nurses staring down at him in disbelief and an incredible amount of pain. This is when he pulled out every tube attached to him and tried to simply walk out of the hospital in nothing but a gown. This, long story short, caused more trouble than good, and is how he inevitably found out that he is not nearly as powerful in his mortal form. After this, and being man handled by security, doctors, and nurses alike, everything was incredibly simple.

His house is supposedly right outside the local forest and he shares it with his single mom. At one point, during his first year, the teachers were so skeptical about the strange duo Cipher family that two teachers not only wanted to meet his 'mom', but also wanted to meet his 'mom' at his 'house.' Due to a lack of magic, Bill knocked both teachers over the head with a shovel and haunted their dreams into believing that he was a perfectly normal boy with a perfectly normal life.

Nothing weird has happened since. Which is as good as it is a shame.

There has been several instances of girls and boys alike sending affection his way, but he stomped it out as soon as it came. Humans are too disgusting to even entertain the thought of having mild attraction towards any of them. He generally tries to avoid interaction with any of the teens outside of school although thats when most ensue mischief. This whole experiment may have him heavily invested, but not that heavily invested. He wants the life of an dubious and mischievous high schooler, but doesn't have the patience to make the connections to do so. The only thing that has gotten him this far is the fact that he can make both teachers and students suffer alike with merely his existence.

Speaking of causing others to suffer, he can use this spare time he now has to do just that. 

What was simply darkness behind his closed eyelids turns into the landscape of the forest. With a quick inspection of his much more petite hands, Bill comes to the conclusion that he is now in his triangular form rather than the rag-tag, sandy haired boy that he has grown accustomed to. As well as he has adjusted to his humanoid form, Bill much prefers to deal with matters such as this with his real form. Although, it isn't really that real as of now.

It's more like a projection of himself. An illusion. Anyone can see him and hear him, but not touch. He's not physically there. He would be, of course, if he had the option to, but if he were to leave the meat puppet for even a few minutes, it would begin to rot, and he definitely is not in any mood to have to deal with a body whose functions are even lower than the human standard. So, while staying inside his possessed's body, he sometimes has an out of body experience.

He glides through the forest with a great deal of ease. Being able to phase through anything makes it easy to navigate through. As he progresses to reach his destination, everything begins to get more and more sinister. Trees are rotting. Bushes are nothing but skeletal twigs. The grass is dead.

The clearing is completely empty. Trees are stumps. Bushes are almost nonexistent. Grass is dirt. He looks up at the sky to see everything shaded over. If one were to look down at the clearing from a helicopter, it'd look like the rest of the forest. Whoever dwells here casted a spell over the area to prevent anyone to see what is actually going on.

Suddenly there's a loud roar that echoes around. Bill readies his stance to look like he can easily attack at any second, but also keeps a casual demeanor. The darkness from the ceiling carries to the floor and covers almost everything until it stops around Bill, making him the only thing visible.

"Bill Cipher." Two large, red eyes call out to him in a sinister tone. "It's been quite a long time since our last chat."

"Has it really? It's only been, what, two hundred years?" Bill purrs, flying side to side to test if his personal spot light follows. It does.

"Two hundred years is a long time when I've been exiled with nothing else to do."

He shrugs, "When you threaten me, I tend to go on the offense. You're lucky you're still alive."

"So, why are you here?" They growl and Bill's entire being shakes. Not that it bothers him, he knows they're basically powerless,

"I thought I'd check up on my closest friend."

"You must be pretty pathetic for me to be your closest friend."

Bill lets out a laugh and rolls back. "You and me both." 

Then, it happens. Before he can even process what is going on, a long arm extends from the darkness and swats at Bill, but all that happens is that it phases through, leaving both to look at the paw in the center of his body. All that the smaller demon can do is stare at it as the once anger filled eyes turn into something else. Another roar fills the clearing, but this time it isn't of fury, but of amusement. Of hope.

"Where are you really, Bill Cipher?" The figure shifts ever so slightly. "Are you in too weak of a state to formally meet with me?"

"Of course not." Bill laughs coolly, sliding out from the hand and hovers directly to the side. "I just didn't feel like I should bother actually showing up here. You really aren't worth the bother."

They only continue to laugh. "No. No. I think that you have gotten rusty over the years."

"Even if I was." Bill growls, suddenly turning red. "You're still bound here. The only magic you possess limits you to dull party tricks like this." He waves his hand around to the darkness that cloaks all but him. "You're too ashamed to simply show your face because you remember that I all but annihilated you in our last encounter."

"This may be true, but now that you have limited power, attempting to escape may finally have some effect."

"Try if you wish."

"I think I shall and besides, if all you say is true, then it will be to no avail and I will have another two hundred years to dread your next visit."

There's another shift of their presence and then even Bill's lone silhouette turns to darkness.

"Good luck." He calls out to only hear more laughter. 

He opens his human form's eyes and has to immediately adjust them to the new found brightness of the classroom. Everything is the same as when he left it. The only difference is that more people have finished their tests by now and several desk are either empty or have open books and bored looking students. One of the students lay asleep and he contemplates haunting their dreams to pick up his mood.

He went to the forest clearing to poke fun at a demon, who he had a brawl with several years ago and then locked away, in an attempt to entertain himself. But when they were quick enough to strike Bill everything went downhill. The thought even enters his mind of ending this little charade to finally end the annoying thing. But, as has influenced him to stay on this experiment so far, he has to live the high school experience in order to reach his goal. He's done it for almost four years so far and it'll only be about a month until he 'graduates.' Should be easy enough. And they haven't escaped yet, so four weeks shouldn't do too much damage.

His train of thought is interrupted when the door swings open and slams against the wall. Everyone looks up to see two students standing in the doorway. Bill stares at them curiously, he has made a mental note of every student in the school and doesn't recognize these two.

One is a boy and the other is a girl. They look extremely alike, more so than normal. Must be twins. 

The girl stands several inches taller and has long brown hair that falls past the center of her back in light curls. Other than this her skin seems to shimmer with glitter. It probably has to do with the homemade sweatshirt that she wears with a rainbow in the middle that sparkles. Other than this, she wears a plain black skirt that ends right before her knee and old shoes. Her face bares a dimpled and a braces covered smile. She looks like such a generally bright person that Bill has to look away at her much duller brother.

He wears much darker clothing. His hair is a mess held together by a faded blue hat with a star above the bill. An orange shirt, a blue, sleeveless jacket, shorts, and shoes more tattered than his sister's make up his attire. Not only does his clothes set him apart from his sister, but so does his not so eager expression. His eyes have dark circles beneath them and his mouth is pulled into a tight line, much different than his sister's eager one that points at every student who dares to make eye contact with her.

"Excuse me?" Both look at the teacher. "Can I ask why you are in my class?"

The boy nods and ushers his sister to follow him to the desk. He pulls out some paperwork from his backpack and hands it to her. "Yes, are you Ms. Anderson?" The teacher simply nods and looks at the papers, so he clears his throat and continues talking. "I'm Dipper Pines and this is my sister." He waves in her general direction. 

"Mabel." There's a pause with an excited hum. "Pines."

"And you two are transferring to finish your exams here?" 

"Yes, they should be included with the rest of the papers." He leans forward and points for emphasis. 

"Well, okay!" She adds a nervous laugh. "Everyone else, keep working, please."

The rest of the students looked down at whatever they were doing as the teacher ushered the two to their seats and gave them their exams, saying they only have an hour and a half to take it due to their tardiness. Bill continues to look between the two with a bored interest before lying his head back down and closing his eyes. 

These two definitely wouldn't feed his hunger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! More to come.


	2. At Lest There's Toast

Hands down, the Mystery Shack has to be the strangest building Dipper has ever had the privilege to be in.

It is a crumbling house made almost entirely out of wood planks and what he suspects can only be a large amount of super glue. The exterior of the house looks like a super sized version of an eight year old’s Popsicle house. There are even giant letters stapled to the front that read its name, except for the giant ‘S’ that has fallen down and now lies on the side of the roof which makes the words actually spell out “Mystery hack,” which perfectly describes the shack’s owner.

The exterior aside, the inside of the shack is an adventure to say the least. It is a cross of a regular house - including a kitchen, television room, solitary bedroom, bathroom, and office - and some sort of tour trap for the unsuspecting. Several rooms play as tremendously unauthentic attractions that practically mock the supernatural, because, as Dipper soon figured out, the reason why the house he now lives in is called the Mystery Shack is to attract everyone who visits Gravity Falls in hopes to see all of its rumored, paranormal anomalies. This is also why there are random rooms that are jam packed full with weird attractions that manage to trick visitors into giving up their hard earned money.  Most of the rooms have barely any thought put into them, mirrors with some sort of whimsical saying pasted on the rim, others have even less thought, strange statues that look like last minute woodshop projects.

Dipper understands the fact that many can find a town that is shrouded in such an abundance of supernatural mystery alluring. He was incredibly excited when he found out that he and his sister were to be shipped to their weird great uncle’s house. Almost all of the time that he was supposed to be packing was spent researching this place. There are countless rumors of creatures that range from bizarre to adorable to terrifying and all that lies in between. By the time he and his sister got on the bus to their new residence, he could barely contain his excitement. Then, they arrived and all of his hopes for mystery and adventure were immediately stomped out when he saw their new caretaker for the remainder of the school year and summer for the first time.

Their great uncle Stanford Pines. Or Grunkle Stan, as Mabel as begun to call him.

He definitely is quite the character, to put it lightly. A really manipulative man. Although Mabel already completely puts her trust in him, truly excited to finally have another family member to be around other than Dipper and their parents, Dipper can’t seem to trust him. The guy makes a living off of dumbest people in the world by utilizing local lore. He isn’t quite sure if he is impressed by or embarrassed by the lengths his Grunkle will go through to earn an extra buck. As of now, he has opted to stay suspicious above all else and to wait and see how things go.

Supposedly there are two others who are employed at the Mystery Shack to help with tours and the small gift shop that remains in the front of the house, but Stan says both leave for college during the school year and only come around during the summer, but Dipper doubts anyone who allows themselves to continually go back to the Mystery Shack and trick people can be dubbed as a good person, so he remains pessimistic and partially unexcited for the thought of the appearance of these two. All in all, he is generally skeptical of everything that is going on with his life.

“Bro-bro, wake up!” Dipper rolls over in his bed and sees Mabel staring at him from her own. They are forced to share a room. In the attic. Wonderful for two teens.

  He turns back over and stares at the walls. “C’mon, the alarm hasn’t even gone off yet. Let me sleep.”

A pillow flies across the room and hits him in the back of the head. “It’s 7:30.”

“What?” He sits up in bed and stares at her for a long time. She looks as tired as he feels and doesn’t respond, looking blankly at him and wearing tired eyes. “Why didn’t the alarm go off?” He draws out.

“I think you turned it off in your sleep again.”

“Unbelievable.”

He drags a hand down his face and shakes his head, sitting up in bed. Sometimes the alarm will go off and, when he is especially tired, he will just turn it off. Not snooze. No, he will plain out turn it off. Mabel sleeps through the thing and he turns it off. The two are quite the pair.

At their old school, they were able to sleep in much later because Dipper would drive the two and it would roughly take ten minutes. Mabel has perfect hair and complexion, so she doesn’t have to worry about makeup or anything besides a quick brush, and Dipper doesn’t even do that much, just throwing on a baseball cap before leaving for the day.

Now, they have to walk and it is about two miles away, so that means they have to wake up early to be able to make it on time. And although it has almost been a week since they moved out here, the two still haven’t acclimated to their new settings. Even when they lived with their parents, they were able to rely on either their mom or dad to wake them up, but Stan honestly doesn’t care about education. Once, when Dipper inquired him why he didn’t storm in and wake the two up when it was eight o’clock and asked the two why they hadn’t left yet, he simply replied that the entire American school system is a conspiracy and should not be trusted.

“Dipper!” Mabel snaps him back into reality as she already is all dressed and ready to go, while all he is wearing is a t-shirt and boxers. She notices the far out expression on his face and smiles, mustering out a light laugh. “Okay, I’m going to make breakfast, meet you down stairs.” She points a menacing finger at him. “Five minutes.”

He nods half heartedly. “Yeah,” He swings his feet over the side of the bed and turns his head to see her standing in the doorway with a thumbs up. He does the same. “Five minutes.”

She vanishes from sight.

“Five minutes.” He repeats again, getting up out of bed and grabbing his baseball cap, slapping it on his head.  “Five minutes.” He murmurs, falling back onto his bed. He closes his eyes. He has five minutes.

Then there’s a loud thud.

He sits up in bed and groans, knowing that that most definitely was the universe telling him to get a move on. His feet lift him up once again and he walks over to the window to where he heard the noise. A little ways from the house, close enough to clearly see, but closer to the neighboring forest than the shack itself, a blond haired boy stands over a medium sized box that seems to be what made the noise. Dipper assumes that he must have dropped it accidentally. He recognizes the kid, he is in his testing period, but never has formally spoken to him. If he heard his name correctly, it’s Bill. All he has heard of him are passing rumors. None sound too good.

While he feels bad that he struggles with the mystery box, he knows better than to associate himself with such a shady kid. He turns from the window momentarily and runs to the drawer, still wanting to see what happens next. So, he grabs a new shirt and sheds his old one, jogging back to the window. When he’s back, he notices that the kid is no longer looking down at the box. He is looking up. At Dipper. Who is without a shirt. Who is without pants. Who is literally wearing nothing but boxers. Dipper realizes that his cheeks are bright red.

“Dipper!” Mabel calls his name. “It’s been five minutes and I am going to eat your toast and Mabel Juice if you don’t hurry up!”

He turns around to yell back in her general direction. “Coming!”

When he turns back, Bill has picked up the box and is marching in the general direction of the school. Dipper isn’t sure if he should be concerned or relieved, but knows he doesn’t have the time to be either. He quickly pulls his shirt over his head and slips into a pair of shorts, running out of the room and down the stairs, to the kitchen.

There he sees Mabel downing some of her homemade juice and a piece of toast. Stan is reading the paper when he notices the boy staring at him.

“You’re going to be late for school, boy.” Stan mumbles quietly, eyeing Dipper momentarily. He doesn’t even bother to try and hide his smug smile.

“Why didn’t you wake us up?” He counters.

Stan shrugs. “I don’t care if you’re late.”

“Let’s go!” Mabel suddenly shouts, standing up at the table. She holds up a water bottle in one hand and a piece of toast in the other. “I made your breakfast and Mabel Juice portable.”

“Okay, okay.” Dipper passes his sister and stands besides the door, grabbing his backpack that has been strategically placed there, stringing it over his shoulder.

She leans forward and kisses Stan on the cheek, who pulls a twisted face. “Have a great day, Grunkle!” She smiles brightly, following Dipper out the door. “Don’t forget to finish the Mabel Juice I made you!”

He groans, idly, hiding his smile this time. “Yeah, yeah. Punch a teacher for me.”

The two didn’t run to school. They sprint. And even so, they are still late and have to come face to face with wrath of the teacher in charge of attendance for the third time this week. By now, she knows both of their names. Not fondly, of course, but when the two run into the office to see that they are already twenty minutes late, she looks at them with rage and the ability to verbally assault them with their own names.

“Mabel and Dipper Pines.” She growls. Mabel shrinks slightly and Dipper rolls his eyes, he seriously has no time for this. They should be taking their exam. “Why are you two, once again, late?”

He has to deal with his crazy Grunkle. He has deal with waking up relatively earlier than normal, but remaining late. He has to deal with the strange kid staring at him while he is practically naked. He has deal with his two mile walk to school. And now he has to deal with her.

“I accidentally turned off the alarm.” Dipper says simply. “Then we had to walk two miles to school.”

“I don’t like your attitude.”

He stares at her blankly for a moment. “I don’t understand what attitude you are talking about.” He raises his hands out of his pockets and uses them for emphasis for how plainly annoyed he is with this entire situation. “You asked why we are late, so I told you.”

She writes something on a piece of paper and hands it to him. Then she does the same to Mabel. He looks down, but before he can read it, Mabel punches him in the arm

“You are dismissed.” She crosses her arms and makes a weird expression. Is it a smile? Dipper can’t quite tell.

Once they are in the hallway, Mabel starts hitting him in the arm again. “You’ve gotten us detention!” She shouts, unable to contain her laughter.

He looks down at the yellow piece of paper. The bolded word ‘Detention’ is written at the top. So he has.

They both leave the hallway and head towards the testing room. Ms. Anderson doesn’t even bother to ask them why they are late. Both of their tests are on their desks, so they both just sit down and begin.

Dipper can’t help but notice the fact that Bill isn’t here. He wonders what he and his box self is doing. Probably nothing good. Whenever Dipper sees him, he feels like he can’t possibly be real. He finishes his tests inhumanly quick. He never talks to anyone. He doesn’t exist out of town apparently. Gravity Falls is pretty small, he has seen everyone around at least five times just in this week, but this morning was the first time he has seen Bill anywhere other than in school. He can’t shake off the thought of how weird that is. How weird he is.

He taps his pencil absentmindedly on the desk, staring at the still blank test. Mabel is scribbling away at amazing speeds, trying to make up for missed time, but Dipper really doesn’t have the energy to take this stupid test.

It’s Calculus. Why does he need to take Calculus? He doesn’t want to be a mathematician. He knows Mabel doesn’t want to be a mathematician. Why does she need to take Calculus? Why does anyone in this class need to take Calculus? Does anyone really plan on being a mathematician in here? Bill’s not here. Maybe he is the only one in the school who has his life together. He knows he wants nothing to do with Calculus.

Dipper shakes his head, why does Bill keep entering his head today? The two have never exchanged words before and now he’s all Dipper can think about.

A scream cuts him off mid thought. Someone in the hallway. Ms. Anderson sits up in her chair and strolls over to the door, but right before she is able to open it, someone enters the class, breathing heavily and slamming the door behind them. It’s a boy, making it clear that the effeminate scream obviously was not his, but other than that, his face doesn’t match the terror that seemed to fuel said fear. Instead, he looks absolutely entertained.

‘Blond hair?’ Dipper thinks, ‘No way.’

The boy looks up to show a toothy smile, and low and behold, it is Bill.

“I released a box of wasps in the school.” He basically screams with delight.

‘What!’ Dipper mentally screams, glancing to the side and giving Mabel a distressed glance. She does the same, looking completely baffled.

“Again?” Ms. Anderson looks absolutely exasperated. She doesn’t even look surprised.

‘Again!’ Dipper repeats in his head. This is too bizarre.

In the midst of startled students gushing about the fact that a hoard of angry wasps is now loose in the school, Bill looks over at Dipper for a brief second and winks. Before anyone, even Ms. Anderson, can react, the door is open again, revealing yelling students and teachers alike running around in the hallway. He dashes out into the chaos, leaving a trail of laughter behind him.

All Dipper can do is stare at the door.

‘What even is this guy?’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, thanks again for reading. Chapter two took forever to put up. Sorry! I'll try to be quicker with the next one.


	3. Sidewalk to Hell

"He's a demon!" Dipper removes his hat and runs his fingers through the mess of hair that is soon covered again.

That is the only thing that can possibly explain this kid. The only thing. He must be a demon sent from the depths of the deepest caverns of hell just to torment Dipper. All of Dipper's sins up to this very moment are being evened by just sitting a mere five feet away from Bill, who, for some reason, has moved away from his usual back-of-the-room place, and now is practically breathing down Dipper's back. He's several feet away and he is still able to breath down Dipper's back. 

At least, that's what Dipper tells himself in anticipation to finally get out of detention. And grab his sister to get both of them out of this dire situation. He must be a demon.

Ms. Anderson sits in the front of the room, most likely regretting the choice of electing for more paid time in watching whose in detention. She thumbs through a book and places a pair of headphones in her ears. There's no one else in the school, there isn't anything she can't get away with. Virtually anything she does can be pinned on them. Dipper and Mabel aren't the type to wreck havoc. But Bill-

Bill is unstoppable. Administration would completely understand and somewhat expects him to do something. So, if their teacher were to burn down the school, Bill probably would say he did it, just because he was planning on doing it eventually.

The thought of it sends a chill down Dipper's spine. He hasn't done anything yet. The school isn't up in flames. The bathrooms aren't flooding. Lightbulbs aren't popping. Computers aren't crashing. So much can be done still.

Mabel rests her head on her desk and closes her eyes. "Bro, don't be rude." She sterns and a yawn flows out of her lips. Her arms tuck beneath her head and a finger waggles in her brother's general direction. "Take a nap or something.."

His senses perk at the thought of even closing his eyes in enemy territory. A bowl of warm water and humiliation can be in his future. There may only be of four people in the room, but Ms. Anderson or Bill can get around whatever kind of torture Dipper may receive. No way is he going to sleep with him behind him. 

But, Mabel's already asleep, snoring softly. What a naïve girl she can be.

Dipper casually looks over his shoulder, pretending to be cracking his back. Bill looks like he's asleep as well. But, it could all be a trick. A ploy to put a glob of shaving cream in Dipper's hand and a feather on his nose.

He faces forward once again and rests his head on his own desk. He is still tired from this morning and the sight of people sleeping doesn't exactly help his cause. So, he allows himself to close his eyes. There will be no sleeping, just the resting of his eyes. 

Still, the prospect of sleeping seems all too sweet. Falling into absolutely nothing. Somewhere far away from all of his problems in Gravity Falls. Back home with his sister and friends. Back where everything remains to stay normal and not overly weird. Dipper tells himself that the idea of falling on a gentle cloud that can deliver him to a world of peace and quiet - a world that has nothing that he cannot control - is not what he wants. But, alas, his grip soon begins to loosen on reality and his mind falls to rest.

Everything becomes blank for a second. Sleep comes as a bliss.

Then he springs up in his chair, snapping back to the classroom, once again determined not to fall asleep. Not even to close his eyes and rest. Luckily that quick shut eye seemed regenerating enough.

When he turns to look, Mabel is still asleep and now the teacher's eyes are closed as well. The book is on the desk and her hand is loosely held around her iPod. He wonders if Bill is too.

"Wow, kid, ease up." 

That answers that question.

Dipper turns around to see Bill smiling back at him, a broad smile spread across his face. He knows that smiles are supposed to be some sort of comfort, but his is plain creepy. Dipper faces forward once again and looks at his hands. 

"Are you ignoring me?" There's a pause. "Can you believe this? I think he's ignoring me."

"You're crazy." Dipper whispers. Bill is being unrealistically loud and he doesn't want to wake up either of the girls. 

Bill flexes in his chair. "How do you know that?"

"You released a swarm of wasps in the school." Dipper tries to maintain his composure. This is a fact after all. Dubbing someone crazy because they elect to release hell's buggy armada in a school setting seems a reasonable enough reason to Dipper. "Besides, I've heard you've done a lot of other stuff, too."

"A conformist are we?"

"Most definitely not." He exclaims, rubbing his palms on the desk restlessly.

"Then how do you know that I've done anything." He counters. "Maybe everyone here just hates me and is spreading lies."

"I just." Dipper pauses. "Based upon your most recent, trivial actions, I may presume that all those in the past that I have been told about must be true." He smiles down at his desk. That'll shut him up.

"What big words you use." Bill laughs mockingly.

There is no shutting him up.

Dipper elects to ignore him again. If he doesn't respond then Bill must eventually grow tired of hearing his own voice.

This causes a long pause. The room falls to absolute silence where neither say anything. Presumably because Bill is waiting to see what Dipper will speak next. But the younger boy won't play along, being as stubborn as he is. But, Bill really does like hearing his own voice.

"You looked good this morning." Dipper's ears turn pink and his hands ball up into fists. It's almost like Bill knows exactly where to strike his nerves. Still, he forces himself to stay quiet. Bill doesn't skip a beat, continuing to fill the silence. "I definitely have that image stashed away. I wouldn't expect someone with such noodle arms to be so well built."

At this, Dipper spins around. "You know what, Bill? Why don't you shut up?"

What he sees is not what he expects in the least. Bill has gotten up out of his seat and now stands directly behind Dipper's, looking down at him with a smile. This bothers Dipper, but not as much as the fact that his face is on the same level as the other boy's crotch.

It isn't for long though because Bill kneels down and brings his face to Dipper's. The boy tries to hide the blush that is spreading from the tips of his ears to the entirety of his face. Each second that passes, Bill leans a little closer so that he can feel his breath on his face. 

Bill smiles and opens his mouth for a moment, looking like he is about to say something, then decides against it. Instead, he puffs a stream of air into Dipper's eyes. The world is filled with darkness and the ringing of laughter.

Dipper springs up in his desk. The teacher is still reading her book. Mabel is still sleeping. He looks over his shoulder and sees that Bill is still asleep, too. 

It was all a dream. Dipper releases a breath he didn't realize he was holding, not sure if that is good or bad. Good because he hasn't actually had to interact with Bill yet. Bad because he just has a dream about Bill. And the latter has a pros and cons list all to itself.

"Alright, it's four o'clock. You guys can go." From her spot at the desk only a mere five seconds ago, Ms. Anderson is already walking out the door. It slams behind her with a loud bang. There is no longer an adult supervisor to possibly protect the twins from Bill.

Dipper practically punches Mabel awake. 

"What?" She groans, swatting his hand away. She uses her arm to hide her face and moans lightly as she wakes up.

"It's time to go." He quickly responds, getting out of his chair. Bill seems to be waking up now, and is stretching himself awake idly. This gives Dipper further incentive to get a move on. His left hand closes around his back pack and he turns around his desk to grab Mabel's in the other.

She gets up slowly and stares at the wall for several seconds after fully standing. Dipper is already at the door, practically jumping up and down at this this point, holding it open. She rolls her eyes.

"Bill?" Mabel looks over her shoulder and smiles at the boy. 

He can't place why, but Dipper knows that this smile isn't Mabel's usual, happy-go-lucky one. It isn't terrifying like Bill's, but it isn't necessarily happy either. The corner of her lips are curled upward, but it isn't a smile.

"Do you have a ride home?"

"On such a nice day?" Bill twirls a pencil between his fingers. As all of this unfolds, Dipper can't help but wonder why he even has it. They're in detention. He was just sleeping. "Not a chance; I'm walking home."

Mabel's smile strains. "You should walk with us! There's no point in walking alone when you can have us as company."

"Well, if you insist." Bill gets up and slips the pencil in his pocket. He doesn't have a backpack so from here he walks passed Mabel and stands besides Dipper at the door.

Dipper doesn't want to make eye contact, so he stares out into the hallway. Just a few hours ago it was filled with screaming students and teachers. Now all there are are lockers, a stray water fountain, and Dipper's eyes.

Mabel joins the two and Bill releases an excited breath, running into the hall. Before he can go far, he rams into a locker, falls on the floor, shakes his head, laughs, and gets up again to keep running in the general direction of the door leading out of the school.

"Better keep up with him." Mabel ribs Dipper and walks out the door as well, except she can't get far before he grabs her by the shoulder.

"Okay, I know you're overly nice to others, but c'mon." Dipper makes a vague gesture towards the general direction in which the sound of running feet comes from. "You know as well as I do that Bill has something off. Being alone with him can't be safe."

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't walk with him."

"Mabel." Dipper insists.

Mabel sighs and stares at her feet. "Okay, okay. I had a dream about him when I fell asleep just now. He was walking home and he got hit by a car or something and, like, when I walked over to him. He-" 

She pauses, choking up and looking for something on Dipper's face. When she can't find it, she just shakes her head and looks away once more. Her shoes again are of interest.

"He told me that if we were together it wouldn't have happened. So, as much of a psycho he may be, I'd prefer putting up with him rather than having him dead and knowing that I could've done something."

All Dipper can do is stare back, deciding not to tell her about his own dream including the boy. To have to live through such an experience, although it may not even be an ounce real, to react this way only makes sense. Especially for someone as empathetic of Mabel.

"Alright," Dipper sighs, holding her hand momentarily and walking out the door beside her. "Let's make sure he doesn't get himself get hit by a car."

Mabel nods eagerly and the two walk to the end of the hallway. Dipper is relieved that her nervous smile is explained and no longer existing. She looks much more happy with a placid look on her face.

When they step outside, they see Bill eagerly staring up at them. "There you are!" He calls. "I was beginning to think that the two of you were going to ditch me." He shudders. "I don't know what I would do if I were to have to make the journey home by myself."

Dipper raises his brow. "Weren't you going to walk home by yourself before?" 

"Of course not, Bill. That's what friends are for." Mabel interrupts. Both the boys stare at her uneasily.

"Friends." Bill repeats with a slight cough. "Well, okay!" 

He runs over to the twins and stands in the middle, intertwining his arms with theirs. Mabel looks mildly uncomfortable, but tries her best to hide it. This is enough to fuel her brother.

"Dude, personal space." He pulls Bill away from Mabel then detaches himself. 

"I thought we were friends!" Bill defends himself in mock surprise, placing a hand on his chest.

"So, Bill," Mabel attempts, making her way down the path that the school lay out for walkers. "How long have you lived in Gravity Falls." 

Dipper slams his hand into the cross walk button at the end of the way and Bill taps his chin thoughtfully. "A long time, definitely."

"Were you born here?" Mabel continues, leaning on the traffic light.

He pauses again. "I'd like to think that I wasn't born. I just came to be."

Both the twins give him an incredulous look and before either can open their mouth to say something, the light changes. They step off the curb and into the road. 

"How about you, Shooting Star?" Bill continues, turning when the road ends and the pavement continues. "When was the last time you twins visited Gravity Falls?"

"Never have!" She playfully bumps into Dipper, who doesn't respond. He instead stares at the ground in and tries to walk in front of the two, trying to avoid the conversation as much as he can. "Our parents were going to send us here over the summer to get some fresh air from the city, but they decided to do some renovations on our house, so they sent us early. We're living with our Great Uncle. " She explains. 

"Thanks for the exposition kid, but you're wrong." Bill kicks a rock and it catches air, hitting Dipper in the back of the leg. The boy continues to ignore him. 

"About what?" Mabel asks. 

"You've been here, of course." Bill laughs. 

Dipper looks over his shoulder at his statement and briefly makes eye contact with Bill. This gives him a bit of deja vu, so he hurries up and tries not to do it again, turning back to the road ahead. "I have?" Mabel continues, oblivious to what had just happened.

"I may be thinking of a different pair of twins." He murmurs, staring off in thought. For a moment he looks a bit glazed over and the obvious pause of conversation makes Dipper want to grab Mabel by the hand, and run far, far away from whoever, whatever this guy is. But, he knows that Mabel would never leave Bill's side before she knows that he's safe, so he leaves the gap in the conversation as it is and continues to walk quietly.

The sidewalk ends and the three reach the grass road that leads to the Mystery Shack. This bothers Dipper to some degree. They've passed all standard houses and he knows there's no one living anywhere near close to them. So either Bill lives in the middle of the forest. Or he is leading Mabel and Dipper to their death.

Leaves crunch beneath Dipper's feet as they slowly gets closer to the shack. Bill is still silent, seeming to have shut himself up. Mabel is humming the theme song to one of her shows to ease her mood. 

He can clearly see the outline of the shack now. Quiet as he may be, Bill is still with them.

Dipper can't take it any longer. "Bill, where do you live?" His sister releases a breath. She must have been thinking the same thing.

"That's a bit of a personal question, even for a friend." He responds coolly with a bit of a snicker on the last word. Hopefully he finds it funny because Dipper thinks its a joke. Friends? With him? Not a chance in the world.

"Well," Dipper growls impatiently. "Our house is the only one this far out, so that must mean that you're following us." He doesn't stop just yet, but he slows his pace so that it is almost motionless.

"The only house out here other than my own is the Mystery Shack and its run through a stationary family for decades." He shakes his head in disdain. "Which goes against everything your sister just told me." He narrows his eyes at Dipper mockingly.

"Well, where do you live?" He asks brashly, trying as had as he can to not become overly emotional. 

"Ask your great uncle, in the middle of the forest. What about you?"

Dipper mentally kicks himself for allowing himself to become intertwined in Bill's manipulative conversation. Now he has to admit his residence to Bill or risk the chance of looking like a fool. "The Mystery Shack." He gestures forwards a little ways as it is impossibly close to them now. If only if it were this close a little sooner so Dipper didn't have to run his mouth. 

Mabel stares forward with a blank expression, not daring to show how she feels about this new development. The only time she goes out of her way to stay placid snd calm looking is when she is especially angry. And when Mabel is especially angry, she is especially scary. And not Bill scary. Bill scary is on the level of a lunatic. Mabel's is calculated. While Bill may be made of poisonous in the sense that he slips between one's lips and by the time they realize it they are already gone. Mabel is venomous. She bites hard and makes one feel terrible about their ability to make her upset enough to dare strike them a fatal blow.

The people with the most frightening tempers have the prettiest smiles. Dipper tries hard to remember that.

"Oh, Pines." Bill looks slightly dazed, then swats at a tree branch that passes over his head. Dipper and Mabel stare at him curiously for a moment while he recollects himself. His gaze turns to the boy. "Pine tree."

"What did you just call me?" He stares back.

"Pine tree." Bill breaths out slowly.

Mabel breaks their gaze. "Have you met our great uncle?" She asks curiously.

"The owner of the Mystery Shack? Yeah, I think everyone here has." He laughs. "There is some pretty interesting stuff in there. Crazy what kinds of authentic items he finds roaming around in that forest." He gestures forward. "I'd get a job, but there's been no openings. To be able to get paid to scare people is a bit of a dream."

Dipper scoffs at this. He knows Bill is crazy, but he assumed he had some knowledge to him. Thinking that the Shack has any sense of authenticity smashes that idea to pieces. Stan seems to have the entirety of the town under his spell. But, still, it's for the best in the end. At least Bill isn't working with them.

"I'll make sure to tell you if there are any openings." Mabel smiles.

The three stand in front of their destination. Dipper is already at the door and running inside while Mabel does the kind thing and bids Bill goodbye, even going as far as inviting him inside. Luckily enough for the two, he declines and continues his way to his own residence in the forest. 

Stan asks Dipper why the two are so late, but the boy ignores him, running to his room to collapse on his bed. Mabel will speak with their grunkle - or whatever the two have reverted to calling him - if she wants, but he is in no mood. Mabel can deal with Stan. Mabel can deal with Bill. Mabel can deal with everything. Dipper just wants to take a nap and never have to wake up again.

Time passes and Mabel does just that. She watches Bill leave. She explains to Stan why they're late and stifles his anger towards her brother. She comes to the attic and wraps him in blankets. Not daring to wake him up, she whispers under her breath that Bill said farewell and that he hopes to see Dipper again soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I know exactly where this story is going now and I hope you guys all love it.


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